Yellowknife’s new aquatic centre is due to open any day (or maybe month) now. You know we’re getting close because the old pool’s closing celebration has been announced.
The official opening date for the new $72-million centre is “spring of 2025.”
The city says it needs to keep that date vague because it’s still finalizing construction, carrying out compliance inspections, and will need to train staff and complete a switchover from the old Ruth Inch Memorial Pool.
You can expect about a one-month period where there is no pool at all while that transition takes place, the city said.
Ruth Inch Memorial Pool’s closing celebration will involve four themed swims on Saturdays from March 22 to April 12. Details are on the city’s website. The four themes are pool party, under the sea, luau and superhero. The first is free, then there’s a small charge for the others.
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The city says it’s on track to complete the aquatic centre within its approved budget of $71.7 million. At the time of a 2021 referendum, the city’s headline figure for the budget was $67.7 million, but the planned spending always included a contingency fund of $3.4 million and $600,000 in other consultancy fees.
Part of the reason the price hasn’t shifted – even though many other NWT infrastructure projects have seen their costs soar in recent years – may be the nature of the contract the city signed to have the facility built. The city chose a design-build contract, a type of agreement that staff said would lock in many elements of the price at an early stage.
The Ruth Inch Memorial Pool building will still be maintained once the old pool itself closes down.
The city says that building is in good-enough condition to be redeveloped into something else. What that will be has yet to be decided.
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Other points of note from the city’s updated pages about the new aquatic centre include the opening hours. The new centre will be open from 6am till 10pm Monday to Saturday, then 8am till 10pm on Sundays.
The city says it is finalizing a contract for a vendor to operate the aquatic centre’s canteen.
The new centre will also feature universal change rooms – individual stalls in which you change, then a common space for people to navigate their way to and from the pool.
